Chapter 33: Deep Sisterly Bonds

All she needed to do was sacrifice one person.

If she did so, she would be safe for a period of time, enough to survive the remainder of her stay in this Blessed Land. Before the next sacrifice to the Ghost Mother was due, she would be able to leave and return to the life of an ordinary person. In her eyes, Wen Chao was already a dead man, for any act of resistance on his part would result in a violation of the Ghost Mother’s rules.

But her hand never touched Wen Chao.

A hand with long, sharp fingernails clamped over her mouth, while another arm wrapped around her body. Despite the arm’s slender appearance, it held her with the stability of iron pincers. Yue Mei struggled with all her might, yet she could not shake that arm in the slightest; she could not even manage to make a sound.

Without Yue Mei’s interference, Wen Chao successfully transferred the identity of the "Seeker" to the Ghost Mother. The Ghost Mother ignored the believer and, following the five claps that Su Huilan had made, slowly left Room 401 and headed toward Room 402.

Wen Chao closed his eyes and whispered to Yue Mei, "Little girl, do you have many questions?"

"Actually, you shouldn't hate me. I intended to help you, but there are important things in my room that I cannot let you see."

"So... I am sorry."

Wen Chao’s tone then turned gentle.

"I am truly sorry for making you eat corpses all this time. Now that there is something fresh, you may begin to feast. Mind you, do not make too much noise, and do not dirty the room."

Yue Mei’s eyes widened. As the realization of her fate hit her, her expression twisted into one of incomparable terror. Pressed against the back of her neck, a mouth filled with sharp fangs opened wide.

*Riiip!*

Until the moment her consciousness vanished, Yue Mei was unable to let out a single cry of pain. Listening to the sound of Yue Mei being torn apart, a tender smile appeared on Wen Chao’s face.

***

Room 404.

The Su sisters were waiting for the arrival of the Ghost Mother. On the surface, they appeared delicate and fragile, but in truth, they were veteran "Favored Ones" who had already survived several Blessed Lands. They had encountered such situations many times before; thus, they were far more composed than the previous four. The most important thing in this game was to follow the rules. As long as one did not lose their head, there was a high probability of safety.

The Ghost Mother stroked Su Huilan’s face and blew a breath into her eyes, smoothly completing the transition of the "Seeker" status. Su Huilan then passed the qualification on to Su Huijin.

Su Huijin also easily located the Child-Seeking Ghost Mother standing nearby. Just as she was about to blow her breath, she suddenly heard a cold, chilling voice from across the room.

"You have seen my child!"

"???"

Su Huijin froze. What was this? No one had ever mentioned that such a situation could occur.

The Ghost Mother ignored the rules of the game. Her pale hand gripped Su Huijin’s arm, her fingernails sinking deep into the flesh.

"You killed my child!"

The Ghost Mother’s words were filled with such hatred that the Su sisters felt a chill run down their spines. Stung by the pain in her arm, Su Huijin ignored the game and opened her eyes to face the Ghost Mother directly.

"I have never seen your child, let alone killed—"

She stopped, suddenly struck by a memory. One night, a group of pale little spirits had charged into their room, trying to touch them with their tiny, ghostly hands. She had used a lethal talisman to slay two of them, and the rest had fled in terror. Was that the Child-Seeking Ghost Mother’s offspring? But hadn't they been sent by the Door-Breaking Spirit?

Su Huijin realized that things could not end well; this Ghost Mother was clearly intent on killing her today. But she did not want to die. How much had she sacrificed to survive this long? She had sold her conscience, sold her body, lied through her teeth, and betrayed countless people who had trusted and loved her. How could someone like her die in a mere game?

She reached into her skirt, pulled out a straw doll, and quickly wrote a name on it before tightly closing her eyes and holding her breath.

The name she wrote was: Su Huilan!

The Ghost Mother’s palm was almost touching Su Huijin’s eyelids, but once the name was written, her movements stopped. She turned her head toward Su Huilan, the hatred in her eyes nearly overflowing.

Su Huilan did not know what was happening. She kept her eyes closed, tears streaming down her face as she mourned her sister’s plight. Listening to the Ghost Mother’s words, Su Huilan realized that her sister would likely die here, but she was powerless to help, and could only grieve in her heart.

Yet, strangely, she did not hear her sister scream.

Just as she was wondering why, a pair of icy palms gripped her head.

"You killed my child."

Su Huilan’s expression turned to horror. "Wait, I didn't! It was her—"

The Ghost Mother’s movements did not pause for an instant. Her two pale hands pierced straight into Su Huilan’s eye sockets. In the moment her consciousness began to fade, Su Huilan suddenly remembered the magic artifact Su Huijin had obtained on the day He Qiong died.

*Substitute Straw Doll: By binding a strand of hair, stamping a birth date, and writing a name, the user can transfer the target of a spirit’s attack to someone nearby.*

Her sister had used the Substitute Straw Doll on her!

"You b—"

Su Huilan’s thoughts ceased.

The Ghost Mother tore her brain apart with her bare hands and stood there with blood-drenched fingers. With her hatred vented, she closed her eyes and returned to the game state.

Summoning her courage, Su Huijin found the Ghost Mother again and blew a breath into her eye sockets, completing the handover of the Seeker status. Once that was done and the Ghost Mother had departed, Su Huijin knelt beside her sister’s corpse and wept in silence.

The two sisters had experienced four Blessed Lands. After narrowly surviving the first, they had received the favor of the "Wealth God" and gained the blessing of "Borrowing and Returning." This blessing allowed them to lend the talismans, magic artifacts, and supernatural abilities they had acquired to others. At any time, if they no longer wished to lend them, they could reclaim the items instantly.

Relying on this, every time they entered a Blessed Land, they would deliberately use their beauty to lure an unlucky soul like He Qiong into the game with them. When danger arose, they would let the "unlucky one" take the lead. If the situation became too dire, they would abandon that person to attract the spirits' attention and escape while they had the chance. In any case, their items would not vanish upon the death of the pawn; thanks to the "Borrowing and Returning" blessing, they could easily retrieve them.

By using this tactic, they had survived until the fourth Blessed Land. And finally, in this one, Su Huijin had abandoned her own sister.

But Su Huijin had no choice. Although the Substitute Straw Doll was powerful, the conditions for its use were harsh. She needed a lock of the target's hair, their birth date on the back, and the target had to be within her line of sight while she wrote the name for it to take effect. The only person she could use as a substitute was her sister.

"Sister... I'm sorry."

"But I truly had no other way. Since we were small, no matter what I did, you would always forgive me. This time... you will forgive me too, won't you?"

Su Huijin had cried many times in the Blessed Lands, but this time, it was sincere. From this day forward, she would never cry for anyone’s sacrifice again. As long as she could survive, everything else could be sacrificed.